The National Abortion Federation said it was introducing the measure to counter “increasing restrictions on abortion care” in certain US states. A number of pro-life measures have been passed this year, with three landmark pieces of legislation widely outlawing terminations in the states of Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana respectively.

“Since there are a limited number of providers and states continue to impose additional restrictions, many women have to travel long distances to reach the closest provider who can help them,” the organization said in a statement. “And this situation will only worsen as the political environment continues to become more hostile toward abortion rights.”

Minister is leading the initiative

Shockingly, the person at the helm of this pilot scheme is an episcopal priest. Reverend Katherine Ragsdale has been the Interim President and CEO of the NAF since September 2018. Prior to that, she has held senior board positions at the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice and NARAL.

The minister was also the first-ever lesbian to become a leader of an Episcopal seminary, when she took the position of dean at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass.

Speaking of the latest initiative, Ragsdale insisted that her group was simply “helping people obtain the abortion care they need.”

“In addition to helping patients cover the cost of their procedure, we also provide case management support and help covering travel-related expenses,” she added. “We are always looking for ways to provide more support for patients so they can make, and act on, the best decisions for themselves and their families.

Ragsdale has been widely criticized by Christian pro-lifers for “blessing” the taking of innocent lives. According to World Magazine, at a 2007 gathering of pro-abortion supporters, the vicar made her stance abundantly clear, declaring: “Abortion is a blessing and our work is not done. Let me hear you say it: abortion is a blessing and our work is not done. Abortion is a blessing and our work is not done. Abortion is a blessing and our work is not done.”

This absurd of “blessing” the intentional killing of little babies has been carried out by many at the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice — an organization for which Ragsdale served as a national board member for some 17 years.

Writing at Religion News Service, the interim director of the group, Rev. Katey Zeh, said recently that ministers bestow the blessings as a form of “encouragement to the clinic’s clients and the health care professionals who serve them.”

Zeh added that she was committed to showing that “spiritual and religious people can respect and affirm the right to choose as a moral good.”

Her use of “moral good” in this situation is highly problematic, of course, as most Christians would view the methodical destruction of human life as decidedly immoral. Do pray for eyes to be opened and for all of God’s people, born or unborn, to be valued.